Astros Release J.D. Martinez

The Astros have released outfielder J.D. Martinez, MLB.com's Brian McTaggart tweets. Houston had outrighted Martinez in November, but before that, he collected 975 plate appearances with the Astros over three seasons, hitting .251/.300/.387. Martinez is represented by Bob Garber of RMG Baseball.

Well, look at the depth of outfielders the Astros have. At the major league level, Robbie Grossman and L.J. Hoes showed promise last season. Adding Dexter Fowler gives a veteran presence. Chris Carter and Marc Krauss are versatile and have the ability to play the outfield. The organization also expects George Springer to play a significant portion of the season in the major leagues.

At the AAA level they have guys like Austin Wates, Ruben Sosa, Ravel Santana, and Andrew Simunic. So JD wasn’t going to get much playing time there. Then in AA the outfield looks great with Delino DeShields, Preston Tucker, and Domingo Santana. Demoting JD all the way down to AA wasn’t going to help him just like sending Brett Wallace down to Corpus wasn’t going to benefit him. It’s not really a matter of the organization giving up on JD, it was more of the fact that he hadn’t earned a role.

J. D. Martinez would work for a lot of teams as their 4th or 5th outfielder or as a team’s protection against injury by stashing him at AAA. If you have hopes of contending, his higher than normal AAA salary would be worth it. They don’t have to give up anything but his current salary to do it, and if he works out for you, he’s still got a few years of team control left.

In some ways the Astros did him a favor by granting him his release. So many players like him end up being kept by organizations simply because they can keep him. Astros don’t have to pay him and teams don’t have to give up a player. Win-win all around.